75. The Alter Rebbe's Chossid That Treated His Enemy With Great Ahavas Yisroel

00:15 Hello, kindelekh. Here comes an amazing story. The Friatiker Rebbe writes in one of his, uh, Reshimas, one of his writings, a story he heard from his grandmother, the Rebbetzin Rivkah, and the story is about her grandfather, Reb Moshe. Reb Moshe came from the city of Shklov. His father's name was Sender. Sender, Reb Sender was a very, very close Hasid of the Alter Rebbe, a big Talmid Chacham, and a very rich man in the city of Shklov. Reb Sender was born in the family of Reb Hirschel. Reb Hirschel of Shklov was a very rich man and a big Talmid Chacham. He was not a Hasid, but then when he met the Alter Rebbe, when Reb Hirschel was already old, he met the Alter Rebbe when the Alter Rebbe came as a young man, came to Shklov to visit Shklov, and in Shklov there were a lot of Misnagdim that didn't like Hasidim, and they thought the Hasidim were bad people, bad Jews. But the Alter Rebbe came there, and people respected him because they knew the Alter Rebbe is a big gaon, a big Talmid Chacham, and Alter Rebbe gave a shiur, and people were very impressed with Alter Rebbe. They saw that Alter Rebbe is a great man, a great tzadik. So this Reb Hirschel decided he's gonna try-- he's gonna ask the Alter Rebbe a question, because Reb Hirschel, he was a very rich man, a big businessman, but he was also a big Talmid Chacham, and he had a question in a Gemara

01:48 that he had for many, many years that he couldn't answer it, and he asked many Rabbanim and Talmidi Chachamim and great geonim, and no one was able to give him a good answer. So when the Alter Rebbe came to Shklov, he decided to ask him the question, and the Alter Rebbe said to him, "This is not a question. Let's learn the Gemara inside." And they started from the Mishnah, and then the Gemara, and the Rashi, and the Tosfos, and the Rosh. And Alter Rebbe just learned with him inside every word, and he translated and explained what the Gemara is saying. And after a few hours and a few days of everyday learning with Alter Rebbe the Gemara, Reb Hirschel realized that the question is not a question anymore. The Alter Rebbe didn't, uh, talk about the question. He just learned with him the Gemara. You see? Sometimes a person has a question, and somebody gives him an answer. "Okay, this is your question. Here's the answer." But there's even a better way to answer a question, when you show the person that there's no question here because you misunderstood. You didn't learn the Gemara correctly. Reb Hirschel was so impressed with the Alter Rebbe, he said, "Wow, I've never seen such a gaon. He learns in a whole new way. Nobody ever learns like him." And he said, "If I was younger, I would have left Shklov and go after the Alter Rebbe and hear all his shiurim. I would just learn from him all

03:16 the time. But what should I do? I'm so old already. But my son, Sender..." He had an only son. His son was Sender. And he says, "My son, Sender, I'm gonna send to the Alter Rebbe to be his Hasid and his Talmid." But Reb Hirschel, because he didn't learn Hasidus, he wanted his son, Sender, to learn only Gemara about Alter Rebbe first. Then he can learn Tanya. And he told his son, "Sender, I'm sending you to the Alter Rebbe. I want you to first learn the seven masechtos, Bava Kamma, Bava Metzia, Bava Basra, Gittin, Kidushin, Kesubos, and Chulin. When you know these Gemaras really well with all the Rashi and Tosfos, with all the Rashi and Tosfos, and the Rosh and the Rif and the Ran and everything, if you know it really well, then you can start learning Tanya." So Sender went to the Alter Rebbe. Sender went to Alter Rebbe. He learned in his yeshiva, and of course, he right away started learning Tanya also because he was so excited to learn Hasidus. The father found out that his son, Sender, is learning Hasidus. He wasn't upset. He pretended he didn't see it. He didn't know it because he saw that the Tanya really made his son a very special person, a special Jew. He saw how he's behaving. His middos was so special because he learned since, since he started learning Tanya. Now, this Sender was a very, very smart person. He, when he fini-- when he got married, he also went

04:47 into business like his father in Shklov and became also very successful. He was also a big Talmid Chacham, and he'd Misnagdim in Shklov, and there were a lot of them, big Misnagdim. Shklov was, like, one of the cities where there was so many Misnagdim, and they would argue with the Hasidim. And Sender was the best at arguing with the Misnagdim. He was able with his arguments to make them quiet. They wouldn't know what to say. They, they, they, they, they couldn't argue with him because he was so good. He was so sharp and so able to convince everybody the Hasidus is good, and they're mistaken. They're making big mistakes when they say Hasidus is not good. Now, Sender unfortunately died young, and he left one son, Moshe. Moshe, who was the grandfather of the Rebbetzin Rivkah. The father-- The grandfather, Reb Hirschel, who was the father of Sender, was very sad because it was his only son, and he died young, and it was very, very sad. And the Alter Rebbe even came to visit Reb, Reb Hirschel, the old man, Reb Hirschel, the father of Reb Sender, who left a no-- a little boy, Moshe. And he came to be Menachem Avel, he came to make him feel, give him support, and make him feel better, because the father, Reb Hirschel, was very sad, very, very sad. The Alter Rebbe came and said to Reb Hirschel, "I know you're very, very sad about your son, Reb Sender, that died so young. He was your

06:29 only son, and he left a little yosem, a child, Moshe, and now he has no father. And I know you must be very sad, but I want to tell you something. I saw your, the neshamah of your son, Sender, in Gan Eden. He was wearing garments, clothes, not physical clothes, neshamahs have spiritual clothes, that were so bright and so radiant, so full of light, I only saw this by great tzadikim. And I was very surprised to see this, that your son, Sender, was, had the zechus to have such incredibly bright garments in Gan Eden. Only great tzadikim have that. Tell me something about him. Maybe there's things that I want to hear about him. Tell me a story about him." So he finally just told him the story. So he said, "You know, Sender, like his father, Reb Hirschel, were both in business in Shklov. And as I told you, in Shklov, there were many, many misnagdim, and they hated the Hasidim. Some of them believed you're allowed to kill Hasidim, chas v'shalom. It wasn't for a very long time. For a short time, they felt that Hasidim, you can take away their money because they're such bad Jews. It was such a terrible time then. People totally didn't understand what Hasidism was. Anyway, Reb Sender and Reb Hirschel, his father, were in business together. And they would go to Leipzig every year, a few times a year, to buy stuff, merchandise, and then they would sell it in Shklov and other cities, and they

08:13 would make a lot of money. One day when they were in Leipzig, they realized they could buy something else, something new they'd never bought before. They could also buy tea. You know, tea in those days used to come from a far country overseas. All the tea, the leaves from tea, which they make tea from, right? The tea bags, they have little leaves inside. Where did the leaves come from? From special countries far away overseas. And people would have to import the tea on ships that would come from very far off. For months and months, they would travel to bring a whole shipload full of tea. So Reb Sender and his father, Reb Hirschel, decided to buy a whole ship full of tea. But the ship of tea had to be bought by another person who had a connection to the people that grow the tea in the foreign country. And that person was gonna sell it to Reb Hirschel and Reb Sender. Once the ship arrives to Russia, and then this, this merchant, this businessman who was Jewish, would get all the tea from the ship. He would then send it to Shklov, to Reb Hirschel and Reb Sender. They would-- And he asked them to pay in advance. They had to pay him a lot of money first, for it was a lot of tea. So they had to pay him first a lot of money. And since they were rich, they could. They had the money. They could pay it, and they paid

09:41 it. And then when the ship and the tea arrived, the, the, the businessman who bought the tea from the people that grow the tea far away, he would bring it, send on, on a big wagon to Shklov, to Reb Hirschel and Reb Sender, that they should, uh, get their tea, and they then can sell it. They would sell it everywhere and make a lot of money. Now, it so happens that this merchant that would buy the tea from the foreign country never paid taxes. Normally, you have to pay taxes if you buy something from a foreign country. You bring it into the country, the government wants you to pay taxes, a certain amount of money, because you're gonna make a lot of money, so they want you to pay taxes. He never paid taxes. He would, like, secretly bring all the tea in and then not pay any taxes. Now, in Shklov, there were some misnagdim that also wanted to do the business of tea. They saw how successful Reb Sender and Reb Hirschel were. They decided they're also gonna do the business, and they're gonna, you know, do better business than Reb Hirschel and Reb Sender. So Reb Hirschel and Reb Sender will not be able to sell to all their customers because they, the misnagdim, are gonna sell for a better price. And so Reb Hirschel and Reb Sender won't make so much money. But Reb Sender and Reb Hirschel made a lot of money anyways. It was somehow Hashem gave them a

11:12 bracha, and they became richer and richer. And Reb Sender was also a very good person, a kind person. He never said a bad word about misnagdim. He was always very nice to them. He would always visit them. He was-- tried to convince them that Hasidism is a good thing. He never said bad things. But the misnagdim would say bad things about Hasidim and how bad they are and terrible they are. But they would do that not in front of Reb Sender. They knew Reb Sender was a great gaon, a great talmid chacham, and a great baal tzedakah. He gave a lot of tzedakah, so they wouldn't-- they didn't have the chutzpah to say it in front of his face. But behind his back, they would say terrible things about Hasidim. But Reb Sender, he would always be nice to everybody, and even to the misnagdim. One day, there was a misnaged who wanted to really hurt Reb Sender in his business because he felt Reb Sender is making so much money, he's so successful, and I wanna make more money, and I, and I can't seem to be making enough money because he's so successful. He decided to go tell the government that the merchandise that Reb Sender buys from this Jew who buys the, the stuff from, from the foreign country, that he doesn't pay taxes. And of course, the government right away went to check, and they saw that this Jew who got from Leipzig, who got the, the tea from the foreign

12:42 country, didn't pay taxes. So the government started taking, um, checking on the tea. Meanwhile, the businessman who didn't pay taxes, and he sold the stuff to Reb Sender, quickly he got a big shipment of tea. He went and quickly sent it away to Reb Sender before the authorities, before the government comes and takes it away because they suspected that he didn't pay taxes, and they would take away all the tea if they find the tea there. So he sent it quickly to Reb Sender, but Reb Sender couldn't sell it because if he sells it, the government is gonna find out that the tea is in Shklov, and then they would also punish him. So he and his father had to hide the tea in a basement somewhere so nobody would see it. And unfortunately, the tea rotted because it sat there for a long time, and, and, and at the end, it got all spoiled. He had to sell it for very cheap. They lost a lot, a lot of money. But Hashem has His ways, and this misnagid who tried to mess up Reb Sender, who also was in the tea business, the government found his shipment that he didn't pay taxes. And his shipment, they found it and took it away. And this man, this misnagid, who wanted to hurt Reb Sender, lost all his money. He became a poor man. Now, this man never told anybody that he told the government about Reb Sender. For sure he didn't want Reb Sender to

14:21 know that he told the government, 'cause officially he pretended that he's nice to everybody, you know? But the, the truth is that he's the one who told the government, and that's why Reb Sender lost a lot of money. Almost most of his money he lost. But meanwhile, Hashem punished him, the misnagid, and his shipment was taken away by the government, and he lost everything. He became so poor that people in the community had to help him, raise money for him so that he wouldn't starve and his family wouldn't starve. From so much pain and agmas nefesh, he was so upset, the misnagid, that he lost all his money, he became sick, very ill. He had to be in bed a whole day. It was a really, really a sad story. People found out that the misnagid is sick and ill, and now his daughter has to get married. He doesn't have any money. Um, people had to raise money for him. One day, Reb Sender would always go visit all the sick in the t- in the city of Shklov. Even the misnagdim, he was always nice to everybody. He never, ever said a bad word. He never treated anybody badly. Always showed ahavas yisrael, even to the misnagdim. He decided to go visit this misnagid. Now, Reb Sender secretly found out that this misnagid was the one who ruined Reb Sender's business, right? He told the government on him. The misnagid didn't know that Reb Sender knows, but Reb Sender did know, but Reb

16:00 Sender pretended that everything is good. He never said a word to this misnagid, never yelled at him. Eh, pretended everything, pretended that he didn't know. And not only that, now that this misnagid became very sick, he went to visit him. When the misnagid is sick, misnagid found out that Reb Sender is coming, he got very upset because he was worried, "Reb Sender is coming to visit me? Oy vey, after what I did to him, I ruined his business, and he's still coming to visit me?" And, and he felt like, "Oi, look, he loves me so much, even though I'm so bad. I hurt him so badly." But when Reb Sender came in, Reb Sender right away talked to him and said, "Listen, don't worry. With Hashem's help, you will recover, and you'll make your money back. And don't worry, Hashem can in a second change everything around." And as Reb Sender left the house, he left the house, people found under the pillow of the, of the misnagid that, that, that was sick 500 rubles. Apparently, Reb Sender sort of snuck it in quietly so nobody would notice, and left the house. 500 rubles so that he can make, do a wedding. It was a lot of money. When this misnagid saw what a great person Reb Sender is, the ahavas yisrael, that even though he ruined his business, look how nice he is to him. He had, he did teshuva. He felt, "What, oy vey, what did I do?" He felt sorry that he

17:43 did this terrible thing to Reb Sender. And when the father of Reb Sender, who was sitting shiva after Reb Sender died, told the Alter Rebbe this story, the Alter Rebbe says, "Now I understand why his neshamah in Gan Eden was shining with such a bright light." He was wearing these spiritual garments that was so bright. Only great, great holy tzaddikim are seen with such garments. If he was like that, he was wi- even somebody that hurt him so badly, ruined his business, made him lose all his money, nevertheless, he's so nice to him, even gives him money to support him. Wow, what an amazing guy. He said, "Now I understand why he had this incredible light in Gan Eden." And that's the story.